Employee Benefit Plan Compliance Audits

The Department of Labor has stepped up enforcement efforts of audit requirements for employee benefit plans with 100 or more participants. Our clients benefit from our years of experience in auditing plans for companies of all sizes.

Business owners and executives face stringent fiduciary responsibilities and the regulations can be challenging to navigate. Our team provides comprehensive auditing services that meet the DOL’s requirements with the added benefits of best-practice sharing and resources to make the process as smooth as possible.

Our team is committed to meeting deadlines and conducting the audit with minimal impact on in-house staff time. Consistency in staffing means continuity, stability and no ramp-up time after the first year of an audit.

Our firm is a member of the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center. This membership is only open to accounting firms that demonstrate a commitment to quality audits of pension, health and welfare, and 401(k) plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) under the authority of the U.S. Department of Labor. Our voluntary membership also requires additional continuing professional education for our firm members who specialize in this line of work.

We provide both limited and full-scope plan audits at the participant and plan level. Our areas of expertise include:

• 401(k) Plans
• Defined Benefit Pension Plans, including pension equity and cash balance plans
• Defined Contribution Plans, including 401(k) plans
• Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP)
• Health and Welfare Benefit Plans
• Money Purchase Plans
• Multiemployer Plans
• Profit Sharing Plans

We provide audit services in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards in the United States of America and the Department of Labor’s Rules and Regulations for Reporting and Disclosure under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

We are skilled at auditing retirement plans for single and multiple employer plans, as well as plans that undergo terminations, mergers and changes in plan custodians. We can also help identify prohibited transactions and assist plan managers in effectively communicating with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service.

Our experience includes a wide range of issues that plan sponsors face, including:

• • DOL and IRS investigations
  • Hard-to-value and alternative investments
  • Initial audits and stub-period audits
  • Mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs
  • Partial terminations
  • Third-party administrators